Distance cycled: 115.5km from near Takayama to north of Gifu, Japan.
Average speed: 17.7Km/h
Moving Time: 6h30m
Elevation Ascended: 2100m
Total Distance on Current trip: 756km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 11,535km
Money spent: $20
Cycling in Japan this time of year has one main benefit, beautiful autumn weather with blue skies and a perfect temperature for being outside seeing the country.
Unfortunately at 6pm things go dark quickly meaning it is difficult to hit my average of 100km in a day, today was an exception as I got up at 6:30am and was in the road before 7; things work out better this way as I have time to enjoy the stunning mountain views and countryside with time to chill by the river and even find time to do some macro photography of insects.
As I have mentioned on earlier posts I hate cycling in tunnels, Japan has a lot of them, especially in the mountains and today was no exception however there were alternative routes that I decided to take and somewhat successfully I managed to avoid every single one of these tunnels. Of course these alternative roads were more like mountain passes where the road at times had much debris strewn across them as it had been unused for many years. Still, this made things more exciting, first maneuvering my bicycle through a small gap beside the locked gate that obviously read "do not enter" in Japanese. I don't read Japanese so I ignored it and continued. The road most of the time was ideal for cycling with no traffic, just me and the sounds of nature, however things got worse... On a tight hairpin turn where I was going at a snails pace to avoid the plethora of rocks, branches and random rubble as i descended down the pass I hit some very slippery algae when all of a sudden my bike was lost from beneath me. I'm not sure how but I managed to unclip my shoes from my peddles and throw myself forward superman style but I knew and know from my last accident (broken collarbone) to never break my fall with my arms so I took it in my right chest and elbow. With only a slight graze on my elbow I checked the rest of my body, no broken collarbone (phew!) but I was winded, at first I thought it was a broken rib but Im sure it would have been much more painful if it was, anyway I concluded that it was a bruised rib and now any type of lifting in very painful...
This incident aside this backroad was great, I even saw a buck.
My time cycling in Japan has led me to realize that it is not necessary to cycle on the main roads, the majority of side roads are paved and are a hell of a lot quieter than the busy highways, and a good gps system is suggested to navigate your way to your destination; I'm currently using forever map for iOS - it's good but drains the hell out of your battery. OSMAND for android is better.
Today was the first time I hit three digits in one day and aside from that slight hiccup mentioned earlier it was a wonderful day finishing it up with two servings of ice cream - the one and only thing I have found to be cheap here in Japan.
Apparantly this road block was placed here for good reason.
Well, this is going to be a fun road.
Another beautiful day
The epic unused road.
This is where I stacked it off my bike
As the sun set
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